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(More customer reviews)This is a rather convoluted review, because it involves a long back story.
I bought this thing early this year (2007) after being burned by the M-Audio Fast Track USB device. The M-Audio thing, I was told, wouldn't work with XP Media Center Edition. So, before I bought this Stealth Plug, I called them and specifically asked if it would work with XP MCE and the sales people assured me it would.
So I get it home and guess what? It didn't work! I went round and round with their tech support and never got a definitive answer of what was wrong.
Jump forward eight months to November. I wiped out my hard drive and installed XP Pro so I could use music hardware and software that I couldn't under MCE. Anxious to actually hear my Stealth Plug through the Amplitube software that came with it, I installed it and guess what? It did exactly the same thing as before!
I contacted Tech Support and got nothing at all from them. I called, left messages and nothing. Pissed off now, I did some deep research. That is when I found out that this product does NOT work with Windows, at least not like it's supposed to. It was only because of a review posted in December 2007 that I found out that though Amplitube is supposed to be able to be played stand-alone, the only way to get it to play through a PC is to plug your computer speakers into the headphone output of the plug, or run a patch cord from the headphone output to the microphone input of your sound card!
What kind of crap is that? How can it be stand-alone when it won't play through the sound card without a patch cord? Of course, it took a lot of tweaking to get it to sound right in my sound card since the headphone to microphone impedances are not quite a match. I haven't tried plugging directly into my speakers yet, but don't like reaching around behind the computer and messing with the jacks all the time.
It turns out, the ONLY way to configure Amplitube so it will work, is with the ASIO Stealth plug as the input AND output. There is no option to make the input the Stealth, and the output your internal sound card. Supposedly, Windows will not allow that. Is that dumb or what?
I was at Guitar center the other day, and the guy told me he heard rumors that IK was coming out with a major fix for this problem sometime in January, yet it that's true, nobody is saying anything about it at IK Multimedia.
So, what does it sound like? Well, after much tweaking to get a clean sound out of my sound card, I was able to play around with Amplitube. It has clean American, British, and Bass amps. The simulations are pretty good and you can tweak the knobs and get different sounds. There is also a variety of stomp boxes including distortion (of which there's enough already just from the sound card), phaser, phlanger, etc. The stomp box that doesn't make much sense to me is the wah. How are you supposed to play and manipulate the wah pedal with the mouse at the same time? There is auto-wah, but that gives little control.
So, it seems this system is designed for MAC's because in the PC world, Mr. Gates and crew do not allow multiple ASIO sound devices.
As I was typing this, I finally got a return call from IK Multimedia! The service tech confirmed the problem with the PC. He also said there is no fix coming because the problem is a Windows problem and they have no control over it.
So, this is not just a plug and play device like it's implied. And nowhere in the instructions does it say you have to run the headphone jack directly to your speakers or the microphone input of the sound card. Or, if it does, it is not very well stated. Tonight, I'm going to go back and read the instructions again, just to make sure.
Though there is a workaround for the PC, this thing should be advertised as a MAC device, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, you can get it to work, and Amplitube does a good amp simulation, but it is NOT just plug and play. After I try recording with it, I'll edit this review with the results. This device has a lot of potential, it just doesn't live up to it, yet...
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The IK Multimedia StealthPlug is the easiest solution for connecting your Guitar or Bass to your Computer. StealthPlug is the first audio interface for guitar and bass integrated into a simple, miniaturized quarter inch jack to USB cable with full input/output processing for your PC or Macintosh.It is so easy to use that you will be able to plug into your computer as you would plug into an amplifier. Be ready to rock in seconds and plug into the world of software-based amp and effects modeling, and recording. StealthPlug Features 9'/2,5m length cable with integrated audio interface 1/4 inch jack connector MONO IN 1/8 inch mini-jack Headphone STEREO OUT (suitable also for Amp/Powered Speaker OUT) USB 1.0/2.0 connector Activity LED Volume UP/DOWN buttons USB bus powered 16 bit A/D -D/A converter 44KHz/48KHz Sampling Frequency Ultra-low latency ASIO and Core Audio Drivers Hi-Z direct Guitar and Bass-IN (suitable for any instrument with line out also) The most complete hardware-software solution for Bass and Guitar players StealthPlug includes our award winning; complete Guitar and Bass Amplifier and Effects modeling software, AmpliTube 2 Live, both as a standalone and a plug-in compatible with your favorite recording software, including Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic, Garageband, and others. Fully MIDI-controllable, AmpliTube 2 Live is based on AmpliTube 2's unique DSM technology and includes 15 guitar and bass amplifier models of the most sought after vintage gear, 11 effects, a built-in tuner, an amazing selection of more than 128 customizable user presets, and SpeedTrainer, an integrated audio player with pitch and speed control, ideal for learning your favorite songs. StealthPlug is also a complete recording and composing solution and includes the full Audio/MIDI Recorder/Sequencer Tracktion 2 by Mackie, IK's T-RackS 6-
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